A Hero's Fall
by TheApatheticRoseofCalamity
Summary: After a single mission went bad, leaving Yang dead, Ruby sets of to find the murderer and pay him a hefty fine. After all, Pluck a rose and you deal with the thorns. ***REWRITE of The Birth of the Black Rose***
1. Chapter 1 A Hero's Fall

We were heroes, once upon a time. That meant the world to me. It was everything I had ever wanted to be. To be able to help someone get their happy ending. But alas, a hero never gets the happy ending the rest of the world does. It all started with, dare I say it, a Yang.

***present time - Beacon Academy Heroes Memorial Cemetery***

The heavens weep on a day such as this. Good. It will never know my pain of losing the last family I had. I never thought a mission could go so wrong. A simple Grimm hunt, turned Man hunt.

There was no warning. A simple blast of gunfire, and my world was turned on its axis. Like a cut thread, she was gone. Yang Xiao Long, my beloved sister, was shot directly in the center of her chest. A fatal wound with an incendiary dust bullet. Even with my semblance I never would have been able to save her. As I watched her be buried into the ground in her black and yellow coffin, I couldn't help but look over at my teammate Blake. They were dating after all. They were the cutest couple one could imagine, and the only ones that knew that I was dating our final teammate, Weiss. Both of which were crying silently. I looked on with my burning amber eyes, and remembered the day everything changed, and everything that followed.

***Flashback –Two Weeks Previous***

"Team RWBY, you have been specifically requested for this mission. It is a routine Grimm hunt, with nothing more than the occasional Nevermore popping in. It is in a large forested area on the outside of Vale. Do you accept?" Professor Ozpin asked with a knowing gleam in his eyes. He took a sip of his coffee and waited for the answer.

"Yes, of course we accept. Who do you think we are? Quitters? Psh, as if." I said in a casual way that only I could. My silver eyes glowing with anticipation of a decent hunt to relax the nerves.

"Very well you leave in a few hours. Stay safe and come back alive girls." I gave him an excited wave as I left and got my team ready. We all were ready in less than an hour and left early. We got in the bullhead and flew for a two hour trip. I crawled up to Weiss and melted into her side in the way only I could. She gave me a hug and we stayed like that the entire trip.

We found ourselves a few hours later just finishing off the Grimm when I got a call on my Scroll.

"Ruby, are you done with the hunt?" I nodded and began to say more but he cut me off. "Good. Torchwick is in your area and is currently on the run. Cut him off and capture him." I nodded as he hung up. It seemed as if something was off though, I quickly shook it off and looked at my team.

"Alright girls, looks like Roman is nearby and we have been tasked with cutting him off and trapping him. Let's go catch us a bad guy!" I shouted doing a fist bump in the air. They all nodded and we took off in the direction we thought he was in. sure enough there he was in a clearing, but there was something wrong. He wasn't running, nor did he look like he was out of breath or anything. If anything, it looked like he was waiting for us.

"Good evening children, Red. It seems that in all the confusion, none of you thought to use a decryption program on your scrolls. Isn't that common Knowledge for hunters these days? Get with the times ladies! Even a child could hack into a bank nowadays. Allow me to introduce you to some friends of mine. They will absolutely love you." He said with a sinister tone. From the trees around us dropped what I could only guess was a few hundred repurposed Atlesian Knights. I nodded my head and the team itself took off in the four cardinal directions. We destroyed many of them and the only one taking them out faster than me was Yang. It wasn't much of a surprise, not when you think about it. She finished with her foes mere seconds before I did, with Blake and finally Weiss finishing as well. We all turned towards Roman only to see him pulling the trigger on the Melodic Cudgel. With no time to prepare an aura shield, it would go through whatever body part it touched. Unfortunately, it just so happened to be pointed right at Yang's chest. I had enough time to catch her and then Roman turned and walked away with a smirk on his face.

"No, Yang! C'mon, talk to me! Yang!" I cried as I held her. Her long blonde hair splayed out on the ground, splashes of crimson in it. She mouthed the words that I didn't want to hear, and in that moment I knew, my sister was gone. Her last words were the two that my mother had said to me the day she died. Same with my father. Two little words, to wreck a life.

 _I'm sorry._

I cried and wailed out my sorrow and didn't even register that Blake and Weiss were near and had called the Academy for an EVAC team. No one had noticed that as my tears continued to fall, my eyes lost their silver color, and burned deep amber, smoldering like two blistering infernos. My Aura was gradually released and began to blow the wind around us leaving rose petals scattered around and eventually small fires began to burn. I didn't notice any of this, nor did I notice that the petals began to turn a deep onyx color. In the end I had to be sedated I order for her body to be moved.

I woke up a few hours later in team RWBY's dorm, and I was alone. It hit me like a ton of bricks that I was the last Rose other than Uncle Qrow. And he was only by marriage at best. I sat up to find I was in Weiss' bed and that there was a note next to the pillow.

 _Went out to get a few groceries for when you wake up. I love you._

 _-Weiss_

I sighed and shook a little bit as I cried. I walked over to Yang's closet and grabbed something that she tried to keep hidden from me, but I knew she had this bad habit anyway. I grabbed her pack of cigarettes and her Zippo lighter and began to smoke one. I didn't move when Blake came in for the night, nor did she do more than widen her eyes at me smoking a cigarette. She walked over to me and took the cigarette away and then hugged me as the tears began anew. That week went by so fast; nothing we could have done prepared us for the funeral that was to take place. We were a broken team, and no one knew how to fix us.

***Current Time***

The tears in my eyes began to dry as her casket was finally dropped into the bottom. She was placed right next to my mom's grave here at beacon. Which no one but a select few knew was empty. Her real grave was on a snowy cliff top just outside of Patch.

The funeral began to disperse and soon the only ones left were myself, and Ozpin.

"He could have killed us all on that mission if he felt like it. He hacked into my scroll and told us exactly where he was only he did it using your face and voice." He looked at me with sad eyes and I knew what I had to do. "I'm leaving Ozpin. I'm going after him. And I won't stop until I find him. He should know, when you pluck a rose, be prepared for the thorns." And with that I turned around to go to my dorm. When I arrived Weiss was out and Blake was still in her bed crying. I took the box that was on my bed and opened to reveal Ember Celica. They were not buried with Yang because I had wanted to keep a piece of her close to me. I grabbed my cloak and scythe then began packing my bags. Blake looked over to see what I was doing and got up to hug me.

"This is not the way you want to go Ruby, it will eat you up inside and eventually destroy you. Please don't go." She said with tears coming down harder than before. I hugged her back for a quick second and let her go. She looked into my eyes and gasped. "you've already made up your mind then. You're not going to stop until you kill him are you? Ruby this is not the way to go! Think about Weiss! Think about me! What would your sister think of your choice?" she cried harder and hugged me closer. I sighed and then gently knocked her out to catch her. I set her on her bed and grabbed my bag. I left a note on Weiss' desk and made my escape.

And thus began the Hunt for a man who took the last family I had.

And thus began the tale of

A Heroes Fall


	2. Chapter 2 An Angel's Fall From Grace

_Born an angel, heaven sent, falls from grace are never elegant. Stars will drop out of the sky, the moon will sadly watch the roses die. – Sacrifice_

A mere week of leaving Beacon and already I had come across two teams of hunters trying to get me to come back to Beacon. They had even sent team JNPR after me to see if it would work. I finally had enough and hacked into my registration file in the Huntress Data-banks back at Beacon and listed me under MIA. It wasn't a very difficult task to do, if anything it was simple. I disabled the tracker on my scroll shortly afterwards and started moving. I looked up into the sky and saw the moon out in all its shattered glory. By the position it was in, it was roughly two in the morning. Give or take a few minutes.

My attire had changed drastically from the usual red and black ensemble. I now had on black combat boots with silver laces, baggy combat styled cargo pants with many pockets along the sides. Tucked into my pants was a black long sleeved thermal turtle neck that fit snug. On each side of my waist was a gun metal silver fauld and cuisse armor, plated metal going down mid thigh to the side of my waist and directly in front of my thighs. Around my wrist were the deactivated forms of Ember Celica, only they had some nice upgrades. Instead of being a shot-gauntlet now, they were along the lines of plasma gauntlets. They shot a hard line of condensed energy whenever they fired. They had been repainted as well. Instead of the yellow that they were, they were now a gun metal silver. Crescent Rose was firmly attached to my lower back and had a similar repaint. The red was now replaced with the same silver paint. Over everything was a black cloak that hid everything perfectly.

The last piece of my new uniform was my mask. A jagged bone plate from a Grimm that I had taken down on my way out from beacon. It was a new style of Grimm, or one that been forgotten I'm not sure. It had a human like skull, sharp pointed teeth wrapping around its jaw in a menacing smile. Two horns came down from the side of the head and ended in front of the teeth. After cleaning it and making it wearable, I found it soothing to wear it. It was a full helmet by the time I was done, it still let my hair flow out behind it, and I'm sure when it got longer it would be menacing to look at, I fixed it to follow my jaw when I talked and rigged a voice box into it, so I sounded quite demonic. My eyes completed the picture. With them burning deep amber as they were, I capitalized on that and put a black glass over the eyes. The glass was a special one way mirror that I had found in my week of travel. The only thing that could be seen of my eyes was the raging inferno of amber. In the end I felt pretty confident that I looked pretty damn scary.

I walked through the forest hoping to make camp before I ran out of forest. Sure enough I found a reasonable clearing to make camp. That's when I heard it, or the lack of hearing it. The sound of silence is never a good thing.

Sure enough I was surrounded by a group of White Fang members. They all had a miscellaneous animal features, Ranging from dog ears to cat tails, but one thing they all had in common was the cruel smirk on their faces. They though they found easy prey. They were wrong. Oh so wrong.

"Do yourself a favor and hand over any valuables you have and we can avoid any trouble, yeah?" one said. I assumed him to be the leader with the arrogance he spoke with. He was average sized all around; all in all you miss him in a crowd. The only tell on him was the pair of horns on his fore head making him look like some kind of demon. I chuckled in my head a little at the thought. They all drew a weapon as I began to move my arm behind me to grab Crescent Rose to deal with these pests. I unfolded my precious scythe and spoke through the mask in a chilling tone.

"You have picked the wrong person to try and rob." I said and they visibly shivered. The voice changer came out better than I had hoped. My voice now sounded like a knife against stone. I quickly swung my scythe around and took them all down in one swing. "Pathetic. If this is all the White Fang has become, they will never get the equality they deserve. If this is what working with Roman entails, then you have gotten the sucky part of the deal." I scoffed. I heard a caw in the air and stiffened thinking it to be a Nevermore or another creature of Grimm. It turned out to be just a normal raven. He was a beautiful black bird with glossy feathers. He perched on a tree in front of me and cawed at me, staring at me straight in the eye as if it were judging me. Then as if I passed his test, he bowed his head at me and spread his wings in submission. I raised a brow under my mask and looked at him curiously.

"You are a one strange bird. I take it you are going to be traveling with me?" at this he nodded his head. "Then you are going to need a name." he began to glow an ethereal green and feathers dropped from its wings as it spread them. "So you have been touched by dust. You are an intriguing bird. So, shall we hit the road then, Dust?" He cawed his approval and we began to walk. It took me almost the rest of the night to find another decent place to set up camp. After everything was taken care of, Dust landed by my head as I began to drift off to sleep.

***Next Morning***

I woke up and began to tear down camp immediately. I got as far as the edge of the clearing, when I heard a ding on my scroll. I cautiously dug it out of my cargo pants and read the message that was pinged as a priority.

 _Ruby,_

 _You don't know me, but I know you. It is rather strange that when your sister dies you disappear to find her killer. Strange in the way that, that is exactly what I did. My sister was killed by a woman who you have no doubt dealt with already. But you don't want to hear about my woes. If you truly want to find Roman, head due South of your current location. There will be a clearing with a small cabin. Enter the cabin and we will talk more. Oh, and watch yourself, those goons you took out last night already reported in. you have a moniker now. Hard to get, even harder to get rid of. At least yours is fitting. See ya soon, Death._

 _-The Silent Swordswoman_

I sighed and began my walk South as Dust flew lazily above me. I eventually hit the area the person spoke of and activated Ember Celica seeing that my scythe was too large for the cabin. I walked inside and standing there, was someone who I never thought I would have the pleasure of meeting. In the cabin was the very person that Yang had been looking for, for who knows how long, Raven Branwen. Yang's mother. I started to growl a little bit and held up Ember Celica in warning. She held up her hands in a gesture of surrender, but I still didn't let my arms down.

"Why don't we talk face to face instead of mask to mask eh?" she asked as she slowly brought her hands up to her mask and took it off. Underneath was a black haired red eyed Yang. And that hurt. A lot. I guess I wasn't really over her death as much as I wanted to believe. I reached up and undid the clip for my own mask and slowly took it off. "My god, you look just her; you look just like my sister. Your mother was always beautiful. Her silver eyes were startling. But your eyes are terrifying." She said in a voice heavy with disbelief. I looked at her sharply at the new information and began calculating the time she disappeared into the time of my mother's death. I found they matched up rather well. A few discrepancies, but nothing I cared to hear.

"What do you want? I have no time for smoke and mirrors. If you chose now of all times to be a caring mother then you are too late. Besides, you have the wrong girl." Even with me talking when Dust found me last night, my voice was still raspy from me not using it since I left beacon.

"I told you Death, if you want to get to Roman you might want to hear what I have to say." She said in an even voice filled with patience. Something I was lacking at the moment.

"Why do you call me that? I have a name. That is not it." I said with barely restrained anger. She was getting on my nerves and it was beginning to show. I put my mask back on, and immediately I felt more comfortable about the situation.

"It was the moniker you were given. The one in black with the visage of hell and carrier of the demon's scythe. Walks with crows and deliver us all in the end of our days to final resting place. _Death_. Like I said, at least your moniker fits for the most part. And you can use yours as an alias. Besides, if you want to get close to Roman, Ruby has to be dead. And if you want my help, you will do what I say. I am about to make you an offer that will help the both of us in the long run. You will get to have Roman's head on a pike, and I will have _Cinder_." She said the last name with such venom I thought she would have spit and it would have melted the floor. I paused at that name and remembered the young looking women who had been a transfer student from Haven during the Vytal Tournament. The one whose semblance controlled fire to a startling degree. If she was the one responsible for my mother's death, than all the more reason to take her out after Roman.

"An angel's fall from grace is never elegant, but with a name like Death, you could say that your fall from grace was your rebirth. After all, death is an angel, even if few believe she was, she is and always will be and angel. So tell me, will your fall from grace lead you into despair, or will it lead to rebirth? Will you serve in heaven, or rule in hell?" she said it in such a way, I knew there would be no turning back. I knew it would lead down a road that isn't very pretty or very morally right. But I didn't care. Not really. I looked at Dust as he cocked his head towards Raven as I understood his implication. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. As I opened them I embraced the idea of becoming Death. If that is what I am to be, then so be it. I will walk down this path and dispose of anyone in my way. Be they sons of man, lords of heaven, or the dregs of hell. In the flattest voice I could achieve, and with the added bonus of the mask, it sounded truly demonic. It sounded like true death.

"I'm listening."


End file.
